Cured Meat

These bite-sized gems make a divine pop-in-your-mouth snack alongside a robust cup of strong black tea.

A terrific side for roast pork loin or roast chicken. Smoky cheese and bacon are stirred into rich and creamy mashed potatoes. You can mash the potatoes with a regular masher or—even better—a ricer.

Green apple and a dash of cider vinegar provide just the right amount of tart balance in this slightly sweet, down-home soup topped with homemade bacon bits.

Braised dishes are often served with a creamy side like mashed potatoes, polenta, or grits. Black beans offer an earthy change of pace and complement the chile purée.

This richly flavored chili pays homage to the Texas "bowl of red," in which meat is the star. Mole paste, ancho chile powder, and cumin add depth of flavor. Set out bowls of beans, cheese, onions, and other garnishes so that guests can have their chili just the way they like it.

In the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, lasagne bolognese is usually made with a besciamella sauce. Italian-American cooks often replace that time-consuming step with ricotta. In this wickedly good interpretation, food editor Melissa Roberts combines the two traditions by whisking milk into some of the ricotta, creating a billowy pseudo-besciamella (the remaining ricotta mixture is stirred together with spinach). We rarely call for specific brands, but we did find that widely available Barilla no-boil dried noodles produced an exemplary lasagne. An egg pasta, this one comes very close to the flavor and delicacy of homemade.

Chicken cacciatore is a ubiquitous dish in Italian-American restaurants, but we think it is even more delicious when made with veal shoulder roast. Slowly braising the meat in a heady tomato sauce enriched with pancetta, olives, and porcini produces a dish so good, you'll find yourself sneaking nibbles all the way to the table. It's even better the next day—if you can contain yourself.

Patience is the key to this soul-satisfying soup chock-full of winter greens. Its depth of flavor comes from cooking the soffritto—a mixture of pancetta, onion, celery, carrots, and the ribs from the chard—for a good 45 minutes and from browning the tomato paste. The result is so savory that there's no need for broth; water, canned tomatoes, and a parmesan rind work beautifully. And because this soup must cook slowly, don't worry about prepping all your vegetables before you begin—you can simply chop as you go.

Oltranti and his family prepare this dish with rabbit, but it's equally appealing with chicken. Roasted with super-savory pancetta and olives, the garlicky meat stays moist in a shallow bath of white wine.

No need to open a bottle of white wine for the few tablespoons you'd require: Lemon brightens up this easy risotto.

This bottomless bowl of meat sauce is the stuff of dreams—the American Dream, in particular. In Italy, ragù would have been flavored with a small piece of pork, but because meat was so readily available in the United States, immigrants included beef braciole, meatballs, sweet and hot sausage, and pork shoulder and ribs. This dish requires hours on the stovetop to make the meat tender and juicy and the sauce thick and intense, but it's well worth waiting for.

(Salade Tiede aux Oeufs en Meurette) Two grand bistro classics meet here: the frisée aux lardons salad with a poached egg, and oeufs en meurette (poached eggs in a red-wine sauce). Frisée, with its slightly bitter flavor and sturdy but delicate texture, stands up beautifully to the rich, concentrated sauce and the warm poached egg.

In this simple side, humble apple cider vinegar is transformed into a gastrique (a slightly syrupy reduction).

Serve at room temperature with a sprinkling of salt, cornichons, Dijon, and a baguette.

Dried beans don’t always need to soak overnight. Just prepare them as instructed below.

A bacon Swiss burger embellished with ripe tomato and avocado: delectable! In this burger, I've spiced up the meat with thyme and Worcestershire sauce, which hint at the Mediterranean and at the steak house. In this case, a soft white bun is the best choice—any other type of bun and the burger might become too huge to eat. But of course, that's what helps to make it delectable. Serve your favorite condiments alongside.

Here, we pepped up the fail-safe brunch combination of bacon, egg, and cheese by adding handfuls of flavorful sautéed arugula. They'll be jumping out of bed for this one.

"I'm hot-rodding bacon here," said food editor Melissa Roberts, "making it extra-special with a fragrant hit of pepper over a sweet glaze." Rendering the bacon before it's brushed with maple syrup and finished in the oven results in strips with a spectacular crunch.

These come out extra-crispy when you use a pizza stone. If you don’t have one, a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet works well; invert it so that you can remove the pizza easily.